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“The Quakers of Wrightsborough were more inclined to thearts of peace than to the pursuit of war.”

– Lucien Lamar Knight

For some Europeans migrating to the New World in the 18th century, land and prosperity were not the only reasons to exchange one homeland for another. From the Puritans who fled persecution by the Church of England to the German Lutherans and French Huguenots who feared Catholic reprisals following the Protestant Reformation, religious freedom was more important than national ties or personal gain.

When most people think of economic development, they think of the large industrial plant moving to town or the Fortune 500 company bringing a few hundred new jobs to the area. But in many communities throughout Georgia, the biggest and most reliable source of economic development and stability is the place that many take for granted: your community hospital.

ATLANTA — This week, the Public Service Commission resumes testimony in Georgia Power’s rate case in which the giant utility is requesting a $482 million increase.

In the month since testimony in this case paused, the five commissioners have sensed the public distaste in a way uncommon for past rate-hike requests. Of course, the only people favoring any price increase are those on the receiving end, and commissioners expect a certain amount of grumbling as they balance the need to have a financially viable energy producer against the need to keep rates affordable.

We all want to be a diving granny someday. Poppy still wears a bathing suit in public. She swims. She gets her hair wet and lets it air dry. Pool mamas, their eyes hidden behind sunglasses and visors, watch the diving granny as she removes her baseball cap, steps out of her shorts, approaches the side of the pool and, toes pointed, leaps from the edge. Swoosh. She surfaces with her grayish-blondish hair plastered to her head.

I think we all feel blessed to be Americans. I feel particularly blessed because it could easily have been different for me. My father is from Egypt and my mother is from Germany. They came to this country after World War II. They arrived here with almost nothing. They met in medical school. They moved to Atlanta in 1964 when I was born. They had very successful medical careers, helped a lot of people and gave a lot back to their community.

The launch of the healthcare insurance exchanges on Oct. 1 was nothing short of a travesty.

Of the 3 million people that jammed the healthcare Web site during the first 24 hours, a grand total of six were able to navigate their way through the electronic labyrinth and actually enroll.

This key centerpiece to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, was the sort of massive failure that, unfortunately, one has come to expect from the bloated, heavy-footed bureaucracy in Washington.

ATLANTA — The response some Georgia Democrats and Republicans offer on the Obamacare has changed in recent days, each swayed by different realities about the most far-reaching federal law in half a century.

From the time it was first proposed, through its rush passage by Congress until this month’s beginning of its central application, Democrats have unfailingly defended it, and Republicans have tried to stop it all together. Suddenly, each is saying something new.